198 



HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



Jerusalem, must hold up the hand and say : ' We, 

 also, Lord ; we stood by.' Ah ! friends, under the 

 simpler meaning of that dying saint's prayer for the 

 pardon of his murderers is hidden the terrible truth 

 that we shall all have a share in 07te another's sins." 



Again he says : " Ah ! if it v/ere merely my own 

 sins that I had to answer for, I might hold up my 

 head before the rest of mankind ; but no, no, my 

 friends, we cannot look each other in the face, for 

 each has helped the other to sin. Oh, where is 

 there any room in this world of common disgrace 

 for pride .-' Even if we had no common hope, a 

 common despair ought to bind us together and 

 forever silence the voice of scorn." 



This extract from an imaginary sermon is a 

 vivid illustration of the familiar truth: No man 

 liveth to himself. We share in one another's 

 sins. In a certain real sense there is no crime 

 committed by an individual in which all the rest 

 of the community are not participants. Nothing 

 seems more absurd at first thought than to say 

 that pure and noble men have part in murders, 

 adulteries, and robberies. They make laws to 

 prevent such crimes. Nothing could be more 

 repulsive than complicity with what they hate ; 

 and yet, far more than most dream, men in 

 general are partners in the transgressor's guilt. 



